Canelo, 29, is expected to face Kovalev regardless of what happens this Saturday in his fight against Anthony Yarde. The face of boxing Canelo wants the Kovalev fight because it’ll help his popularity if he can beat him.

Kovalev is taller, bigger stronger and better boxer. Things could fall apart for the 5’8″ Canelo when he gets inside the ring with the 6’0″ Kovalev. Canelo losing to a smaller, weaker fighter like Floyd Mayweather Jr. is one thing. Mayweather lacked power, and he mostly just jabbed Canelo in winning a 12 round decision in 2013. Kovalev, 36, would be attempting to plant Canelo on the canvas with one of his big shots, and he could find success.

Hearn: Canelo should be fighting Demetrius Andrade

“Demetrius Andrade is in the same boat as Billy Joe Saunders,” said Eddie Hearn to AB Boxing News. “A really good fighter, tough to beat. So for me, Canelo should be fighting Demetrius Andrade. He shouldn’t be fighting Kovalev. It’s a good fight, but he should be fighting other champions in the division. You can’t criticize Canelo, because his resume is so stellar. So it’s tough to say, ‘Oh, you’re not fighting.’ He just beat Danny Jacobs. So he wants to fight Kovalev. Again, that’s a tough fight. For me, if he’s not fighting GGG, which is the fight that he should have taken, then he should be fighting Demetrius Andrade,” said Hearn.

Canelo will probably look in the direction of WBO middleweight champion Andrade (28-0, 17 KOs) if he can’t get the fight against Kovalev for whatever reason. The Mexican star wants to unify the middleweight division, and Andrade, 31, has the WBO title that Canelo needs to add to his collection to keep moving forward to unify the division.

Alvarez probably would like for GGG to be the one that fights and beats Andrade, but that may not happy. Golovkin has never shown any interest in fighting the slick Andrade or WBO super middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders. There’s no gain for Golovkin to fight opponents that spoil, and fight defensively the way that Andrade does.

Hearn suspects Arum could try an sign Canelo

“Bob Arum seems to be very kind to Canelo, which makes me smell a rat,” said Hearn. “Maybe there’s a move coming up with Bob Arum. He’s been strangely nice to Canelo. So there’s a plan behind Bob’s madness behind that one. I believe he’s got a potential deal with him coming. Having all this control is not as easy as you think. We had it with Joshua. It’s hard to get fights. People cross themselves out. People want to block you. Mandatory’s are called,” said Hearn.

Canelo is still under contract with Golden Boy. For Arum to sign Canelo, then his contract would need to be up. The question is what would Canelo gain in fighting for Arum’s Top Rank stable? Unless Canelo is interested in facing some of Arum’s light heavyweights, he would be greatly limited. Canelo would have an excellent excuse why didn’t have to fight certain guys if he signed a long-term contract with Arum.

“Golden Boy wanted to make the Gennady Golovkin fight. They wanted to deliver that to DAZN,” said Hearn. “Clearly, Canelo said, ‘Not right now. I want to fight Kovalev. They missed the boat with the Canelo fight. Now they’ve got to wait until Saturday. But if Kovalev losses [against Anthony Yarde] or if Kovalev doesn’t look good or he gets injured, then they’re back to the market place where they’ve already upset a lot of people. They can say, ‘Alright, Demetrius, we’ll fight you now,’ but not on the terms we discussed before. He already binned us off. Now let’s talk properly,” said Hearn about Canelo and Golden Boy needing to negotiate with Andrade after the Kovalev fight.

Assuming Canelo greatly wants to unify the middleweight division, he could look in the direction of Andrade. It would depend on how badly Canelo wanted the WBO title that Andrade has. If Canelo insists that Golovkin be the one that beats Andrade for the WBO title, then he might need to wait awhile for that match to take place. Andrade’s last performance against Maciej Sulecki last June may have turned Canelo off to fighting him, because he was so defensive. There would be more interest from Canelo to stick to fighting guys that will throw punches back at him.

“I think he’ll fight him when he decides to fight him,” said Hearn about Canelo fighting Golovkin. ‘It’s about, ‘you don’t tell me who I’m going to fight. I’ll tell you who I’m going to fight.’ The fact is the best fight that can be made right now is still Canelo against Golovkin If Gennady looks good on October 5 [against Sergiy Derevyanchenko], the fans are going to want that fight. It’s two great fighters. DAZN is going to want the fight. Both fighters have an obligation to deliver subscribers to DAZN. This is the fight that does it. Gennady, he’s all in,” said Hearn.

Some fans will demand the Canelo vs. Golovkin trilogy fight, but only if GGG shines like mad against Sergiy Derevyanchenko on October 5. That’s going to be a really hard fight for Golovkin, because Derevyanchenko won’t stand in front of him. He’ll want to punch with Golovkin at times, but he won’t stand stationary for a sustained amount of time, because that would be madness. Derevyanchenko lacks the power to brawl with Golovkin.